Abstract: Both physical and physiological transmission times can differ between audition and vision. Under certain conditions, the brain reduces perceived asynchrony by adapting to this temporal discrepancy. In two experiments we investigated whether this recalibration is specific to auditory and visual stimuli, or whether other modality combinations (audiotactile, visuotactile) are affected, as well. We presented asynchronous audiovisual signals, with either auditory leading or visual leading. Then, using temporal order judgments we measured observers’ point of subjective simultaneity for three modality combinations. Results indicate an adjustment of perceived simultaneity for the audiovisual and the visuotactile modality pairs. We conclude that audiovisual adaptation is the result of a change of processing latencies of visual events. In a second experiment, we corroborate this finding. We demonstrate that reaction times to visual signals, but not to tactile or auditory signals, change as a result of audiovisual recalibration.

http://www.darpa.mil/dso/solicitations/sn07-43.htmHuman Assisted Neural Devices RFI, SN07-43, Responses Due 4 P.M. ET, August 15, 2007, POC: Dr. Geoffrey Ling, DARPA/DSO;The Human Assisted Neural Devices (HAND) program at DARPA has provided the basis for a number of assistive devices controlled, in part, by neural signals provided by the user. There is continued interest in discovering the underlying processing structures the brain uses to perform tasks, with the eventual goal of leveraging these processes with algorithms and models that can control external assistive devices.

http://www.honeywell.com/sites/honeywell/featuredproduct_cat181ec08-fbba81b57b-3e3e4447ab3472a0c2a5e5fdc1e6517d_H99789C49-39C9-5D90-CB9E-E96FE0C5FB3B.htmAugCog Body-mounted sensors monitor brain and heart activity to prevent information overload and keep soldiers out of harm’s way.To help keep U.S. troops safer by improving the information processing capability and battlefield performance of military units operating in stressful environments, Honeywell is developing technology for the U.S. Army’s Augmented Cognition (AugCog) program. AugCog technology identifies soldiers facing information overload and prompts real-time tactical changes by allowing commanders to redirect that information and any required action to other soldiers. The portable system uses body-mounted electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors to monitor cognitive activity in the brain and blood flow in the body. Brain pattern and heart rate data from system-equipped soldiers will be transmitted wirelessly to commanders in real-time to improve overall battlefield information management and decision-making. “In the future, technology advances will force networked soldiers to have greater information processing responsibilities than ever before,” said Bob Smith, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Honeywell Aerospace. “We are developing our augmented cognition technology to help soldiers and commanders manage the increasing barrage of data that exists on the net-centric battlefield. AugCog is going to help keep Americans safer during demanding combat missions.” Honeywell has already developed a prototype AugCog helmet that monitors various brain states including those associated with distraction, fatigue and information overload. The system then uses that data to produce a visual readout for combat commanders showing the cognitive patterns of individual Soldiers. “This technology is going to allow commanders to redeploy soldiers who are in not in the right physical or mental state to carry out a mission,” said Smith. “Commanders will be able to identify fatigued or overstressed soldiers operating in highly intense combat situations and replace them with others who are more mission ready.” For more information on Honeywell’s Augmented Cognition technologies, visit:

http://www.honeywell.com/sites/portal?smap=honeywell&page=pressrel_detail&theme=T8&id=A275C0F09-51B8-97FD-6218-864AED6314F2&catID=cat1b754a4-fb536f3d74-3e3e4447ab3472a0c2a5e5fdc1e6517d&c=nHoneywell Technology to Help U.S. Military Rapidly Analyze Intelligence and Keep Troops Out of Harm's WayPHOENIX, Nov. 15, 2007 -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced today that it is developing a revolutionary system for the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) that could dramatically improve the military’s intelligence analyzing capabilities by allowing analysts to evaluate images from satellites, ground cameras and surveillance aircraft more precisely and quickly than ever before. The Honeywell Image Triage System (HITS) will enable Department of Defense (DoD) personnel to analyze intelligence images up to six times faster than the current computer-based system through the use of high-tech sensors that monitor signals in the human brain. Honeywell is developing the system as part of DARPA’s Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts (NIA) program. “Computer-based systems currently in use cannot process enormous volumes of intelligence imagery fast enough to meet the needs the military,” said Bob Smith, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Honeywell Aerospace. “That’s why we are developing technology that speeds up the intelligence analysis process by tapping into brain signals associated with split-second visual judgments. As a result, we are going to give analysts the ability to identify dangerous threats to our troops more quickly, precisely and effectively than ever before.” The human brain is capable of responding to visually salient objects significantly faster than an individual’s visual-motor, transformation-based response. Simply put, when examining an image an analyst’s brain can register a discovery long before the analyst becomes fully aware of it. Honeywell’s technology uses sensors to monitor brain activity in real time, automatically identifying and recording brain signals to tag intelligence images worthy of additional review. The system presents data to analysts in high speed bursts of 10 to 20 images per second. Head-mounted electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors detect neural signals associated with target recognition as the images are viewed. Neural signals known as “event related potentials” are used to tag the images that contain likely targets or threats. At the end of the high-speed scan, the analysts are able to focus on the small subset of key images tagged by the brain scan instead of searching slowly and systematically through every inch of high resolution satellite images like current techniques require. Honeywell’s triage analysis methods will ultimately apply to a diverse range of imagery, including high resolution electro-optical, infrared and video imagery. It could eventually be used in a broad range of military and commercial applications including medical diagnosis and geospatial analysis. “HITS is going to help the military to analyze more intelligence imagery everyday. By more quickly identifying threats to our troops, Honeywell is helping the U.S. military keep them out of harm’s way,” Smith said.

Autistic savantMost autistic savants have extensive mental abilities called splinter skills. However, it is important to notice that people with a high general intelligence can demonstrate the same skills; savant disabilities are not necessary for these skills. They can recall facts, numbers, license plates, maps, and extensive lists of sports and weather statistics after being exposed to them only once. Some savants can mentally note and then recall perfectly a very long sequence of music, numbers, or speech. Some, dubbed mental calculators, can do exceptionally fast arithmetic, including prime factorization. Other skills include precisely estimating distances and angles by sight, calculating the day of the week for any given date over the span of tens of thousands of years, and being able to accurately gauge the passing of time without a clock. Most autistic savants have a single special skill while others have multiple skills. Usually these abilities are concrete, non-symbolic, right hemisphere skills as opposed to left hemisphere skills that tend to be more sequential, logical, and symbolic. Why autistic savants are capable of these astonishing feats is not quite clear. Some savants have obvious neurological abnormalities (such as the lack of corpus callosum in Kim Peek's non-autistic brain). Many savants are known to have abnormalities in the left hemisphere of the brain. There are only about 50–100 recognized prodigious savants in the world.Famous autistic savants: Alonzo Clemons, American clay sculptor.; Tony DeBlois, blind American musician.; Leslie Lemke, blind American musician.; Jonathan Lerman, American artist.; Thristan Mendoza, Filipino marimba prodigy.; Derek Paravicini, blind British musician.; Kim Peek, basis for the 1988 fictional film Rain Man, although diagnosis has changed.; James Henry Pullen, gifted British carpenter.; Matt Savage, U.S. autistic jazz prodigy.; Henriett Seth-F., Hungarian autistic savant, poet, writer and artist.; Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant.; Stephen Wiltshire, British architectural artist.; Richard Wawro, Scottish artist.

Abstract: Widespread loss of cerebral connectivity is assumed to underlie the failure of brain mechanisms that support communication and goal-directed behaviour following severe traumatic brain injury. Disorders of consciousness that persist for longer than 12 months after severe traumatic brain injury are generally considered to be immutable; no treatment has been shown to accelerate recovery or improve functional outcome in such cases. Recent studies have shown unexpected preservation of large-scale cerebral networks in patients in the minimally conscious state (MCS), a condition that is characterized by intermittent evidence of awareness of self or the environment. These findings indicate that there might be residual functional capacity in some patients that could be supported by therapeutic interventions. We hypothesize that further recovery in some patients in the MCS is limited by chronic underactivation of potentially recruitable large-scale networks. Here, in a 6-month double-blind alternating crossover study, we show that bilateral deep brain electrical stimulation (DBS) of the central thalamus modulates behavioural responsiveness in a patient who remained in MCS for 6 yr following traumatic brain injury before the intervention. The frequency of specific cognitively mediated behaviours (primary outcome measures) and functional limb control and oral feeding (secondary outcome measures) increased during periods in which DBS was on as compared with periods in which it was off. Logistic regression modelling shows a statistical linkage between the observed functional improvements and recent stimulation history. We interpret the DBS effects as compensating for a loss of arousal regulation that is normally controlled by the frontal lobe in the intact brain. These findings provide evidence that DBS can promote significant late functional recovery from severe traumatic brain injury. Our observations, years after the injury occurred, challenge the existing practice of early treatment discontinuation for patients with only inconsistent interactive behaviours and motivate further research to develop therapeutic interventions.

Abstract: Animal studies have shown that sensory deprivation in one modality can have striking effects on the development of the remaining modalities. Although recent studies of deaf and blind humans have also provided convincing behavioural, electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence of increased capabilities and altered organization of spared modalities, there is still much debate about the identity of the brain systems that are changed and the mechanisms that mediate these changes. Plastic changes across brain systems and related behaviours vary as a function of the timing and the nature of changes in experience. This specificity must be understood in the context of differences in the maturation rates and timing of the associated critical periods, differences in patterns of transiently existing connections, and differences in molecular factors across brain systems.

http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v6/n1/abs/nrn1586.html

What blindness can tell us about seeing again: merging neuroplasticity and neuroprostheses

Abstract: Significant progress has been made in the development of visual neuroprostheses to restore vision in blind individuals. Appropriate delivery of electrical stimulation to intact visual structures can evoke patterned sensations of light in those who have been blind for many years. However, success in developing functional visual prostheses requires an understanding of how to communicate effectively with the visually deprived brain in order to merge what is perceived visually with what is generated electrically.

Abstract: The sense of smell is triggered by receptors in the olfactory epithelium that lines the nose. In mice at least, that lining is also responsible for receiving chemosensory cues involved in mating and other social behaviours. In 1991, Linda Buck and Richard Axel reported the seminal discovery of the gene family that encodes odorant receptors in vertebrates. A paper by Buck and Stephen Liberles on page 645 of this issue describes a second class of chemosensory receptor expressed by olfactory sensory neurons.

Abstract: Deep-brain stimulation offers hope for minimally conscious patients. Brain function has been improved in a patient who was in a minimally conscious state, by electrically stimulating a specific brain region with implanted electrodes. The achievement raises questions about the treatment of other patients who have been in this condition for years, the researchers say.

http://www.darpa.mil/sto/solicitations/SN07-20/index.htmlCognitive Technology Threat Warning System, SN07-20, Posted Date: February 15, 2007The objective of the DARPA CT2WS program is to drive a breakthrough in soldier-portable visual threat warning devices. Recent developments and discoveries in the disparate technology areas of flat field wide angle optics, large pixel count digital imagers, cognitive visual processing algorithms, neurally-based target detection signatures and ultra-low power analog-digital hybrid signal processing electronics have led DARPA to believe that focused technology development, system design, and system integration efforts may produce revolutionary capabilities for the warfighter.

http://www.draper.com/patents/patents2007.html#7212639Resonator system with a plurality of individual mechanically coupled resonators and method of making same

Electro-larynx: Patent # 7,312,674 Date Issued: December 25, 2007

A resonator system wherein a plurality of resonators each including piezoelectric material are suspended relative to a substrate. An edge of each resonator is mechanically coupled to an edge of another resonator and the plurality of resonators expand and contract reaching resonance in response to an applied electric field.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119491973444390803.htmlHoneywell Tests Brain-Wave System, By Andy Pasztor, As of Tuesday, November 13, 2007, wall Street JournalHoneywell International Inc., seeking to speed up how fast humans can analyze intelligence data such as aerial photographs, is testing a system that monitors analysts' brains for early signs of electrical activity when they see something interesting. With funding from the Defense Department, the three-year-old project instantaneously keys on certain faint neural signals -- before analysts themselves can consciously react to them -- as a way to identify and flag images worthy of further assessment. Supported by the Defense Advanced ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation

Natural Human echolocation; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human echolocation is the ability of humans to sense objects in their environment by hearing echos off those objects. This ability is used by some blind people to navigate within their environment. They actively create sounds, such as by tapping their canes or by making clicking noises with their mouths. Human echolocation is similar in principle to active sonar and to the animal echolocation employed by some animals, including bats and dolphins.

www.1911encyclopedia.org/James_Holman - 10k - In cache Google.

JAMES HOLMAN (1786-1857), known as the "Blind Traveller," was born at Exeter on the 15th of October 1786. He entered the British navy in 1798 as first-class ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uobuBc2GO0o

Daniel Kish; Dan Kish using and explaining Echolocation

http://www.slate.com/id/2154696/

Science: The state of the universe. The Mystery of Sonar BoyBats use echolocation. Can people use it, too?,By Daniel Engber, Posted Friday, Dec. 1, 2006,

In early September, a 14-year-old kid with empty eye sockets strode on stage for a taping of the talk show Ellen. "I'm not blind," he told the host to wild applause, "I just can't see." The story seemed lifted from the pages of a comic book: At the age of 3, Ben Underwood lost his eyes to retinal cancer. Three years later, he discovered that he could sense objects around him by making little clicking noises with his tongue and then listening for the echoes. Now, he uses these clicks to find doorways and locate cars on the street. That's right—he navigates with sonar.Ben Underwood many videos on YouTube.com

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/uoth-fes031108.php

First empirical study demonstrating that populations of nerve cells adapt to changing images

by Robert Cahill, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 12-Mar-2008HOUSTON - (MARCH 12, 2008) - Neuroscientists studying the mind’s ability to process images have completed the first empirical study to demonstrate, using animal models, how populations of nerve cells in visual cortex adapt to changing images. Their findings could lead to sight-improving therapies for people following trauma or stroke. The study at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston appears in the March 13 issue of the journal Nature. “Our perception of the environment relies on the capacity of neural networks to adapt rapidly to changes in incoming stimuli,” wrote senior author Valentin Dragoi, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “It is increasingly being realized that the neural code is adaptive, that is, sensory neurons change their responses and selectivity in a dynamic manner to match the changes in input stimuli.” The neural code is the set of rules that transforms electrical impulses in the brain into thoughts, memories and decisions.

A bionic device the size of a pencil eraser - the labor of 20 years for a group of visionary Hub doctors and scientists - is offering hope that some forms of blindness could be alleviated within a few years. The Boston Retinal Implant Project, partially based at the V.A. Medical Center in Jamaica Plain, is one of 22 programs around the world working to restore vision to the degenerative blind. Their work: a bio-electronic implant that delivers images to the brain via a connector the width of a human hair.

“There has been this explosion of interest in this field because basically the technology in the last 20 years has become miniaturized enough and sophisticated enough so that for the first time we can imagine building something small enough to put in the eye,” said Dr. Joseph Rizzo III, who founded the project in the late 1980s and co-directs the 36-member team.

Abstract: There is compelling evidence that sleep contributes to the long-term consolidation of new memories. This function of sleep has been linked to slow (<1 Hz) potential oscillations, which predominantly arise from the prefrontal neocortex and characterize slow wave sleep. However, oscillations in brain potentials are commonly considered to be mere epiphenomena that reflect synchronized activity arising from neuronal networks, which links the membrane and synaptic processes of these neurons in time. Whether brain potentials and their extracellular equivalent have any physiological meaning per se is unclear, but can easily be investigated by inducing the extracellular oscillating potential fields of interest. Here we show that inducing slow oscillation-like potential fields by transcranial application of oscillating potentials (0.75 Hz) during early nocturnal non-rapid-eye-movement sleep, that is, a period of emerging slow wave sleep, enhances the retention of hippocampus-dependent declarative memories in healthy humans. The slowly oscillating potential stimulation induced an immediate increase in slow wave sleep, endogenous cortical slow oscillations and slow spindle activity in the frontal cortex. Brain stimulation with oscillations at 5 Hz—another frequency band that normally predominates during rapid-eye-movement sleep—decreased slow oscillations and left declarative memory unchanged. Our findings indicate that endogenous slow potential oscillations have a causal role in the sleep-associated consolidation of memory, and that this role is enhanced by field effects in cortical extracellular space.

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n5/abs/nn0507-540.html

Of sleep, memories and trauma.;

by Robert Stickgold;

Nature Neuroscience 10, 540 - 542 (2007); doi:10.1038/nn0507-540

Contrary to the synaptic homeostasis theory, new work finds that reactivating memories during slow-wave sleep enhances learning and hippocampal activation. This may be useful for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abstract: Whether memories can be suppressed has been a controversial issue in psychology and cognitive neuroscience for decades. We found evidence that emotional memories are suppressed via two time-differentiated neural mechanisms: (i) an initial suppression by the right inferior frontal gyrus over regions supporting sensory components of the memory representation (visual cortex, thalamus), followed by (ii) right medial frontal gyrus control over regions supporting multimodal and emotional components of the memory representation (hippocampus, amygdala), both of which are influenced by fronto-polar regions. These results indicate that memory suppression does occur and, at least in nonpsychiatric populations, is under the control of prefrontal regions.

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v3/n12/abs/nn1200_1335.html

Early sleep triggers memory for early visual discrimination skills.

by Steffen Gais, Werner Plihal, Ullrich Wagner & Jan Born;

Abstract: Improvement after practicing visual texture discrimination does not occur until several hours after practice has ended. We show that this improvement strongly depends on sleep. To specify the process responsible for sleep-related improvement, we compared the effects of 'early' and 'late' sleep, dominated respectively by slow-wave and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Discrimination skills significantly improved over early sleep, improved even more over a whole night's sleep, but did not improve after late sleep alone. These findings suggest that procedural memory formation is prompted by slow-wave sleep-related processes. Late REM sleep may promote memory formation at a second stage, only after periods of early sleep have occurred.

http://www.scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father.

Can the child prodigy work out if he should go to university aged 7?, Ainan Celeste Cawley, the son of a British father and a Singaporean mother,by Alexandra Frean, The Times, November 10, 2007.The parents of a seven-year-old science prodigy have begun a world-wide search for a university place for their child, with the warning that “a great mind could be lost” if he is not offered the chance to pursue his studies at degree level. Ainan Celeste Cawley, the son of a British father and a Singaporean mother, passed his O-level chemistry in Singapore at the age of 6 and is studying for an A level in the same subject.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v333/n6175/abs/333773a0.html

Neural encoding of individual words and faces by the human hippocampus and amygdala

Patients with lesions in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) of the brain, which includes the hippocampus, amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus, are severely impaired in their ability to remember and recognize words or faces which they saw only a short time ago1,2. These lesions also prevent the effect of word repetition on cortical event-related potentials that are associated with these tasks3. We have been able to study the response of individual neurons in the human medial temporal lobe to such delayed recognition tasks in epileptic patients undergoing neurosurgery. We found that some MTL neurons preferentially fired on sight of one particular word from a set of ten words used in a memory task, and others fired in response to one particular face. This stimulus-specific firing was maximal during the time that the neocortical event potentials are most sensitive to stimulus repetition, suggesting that the MTL contributes specific information to the cortex during the retrieval of recent memories4,5.

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v2/n10/full/nn1099_898.html

Reversible neural inactivation reveals hippocampal participation in several memory processesby G. Riedel, J. Micheau, A.G.M. Lam, E.v.L. Roloff, S.J. Martin, H. Bridge, L. de Hoz, B. Poeschel, J. McCulloch & R.G.M. MorisNature Neuroscience 2, 898 - 905 (1999) doi:10.1038/13202Studies of patients and animals with brain lesions have implicated the hippocampal formation in spatial, declarative/relational and episodic types of memory. These and other types of memory consist of a series of interdependent but potentially dissociable memory processes—encoding, storage, consolidation and retrieval. To identify whether hippocampal activity contributes to these processes independently, we used a novel method of inactivating synaptic transmission using a water-soluble antagonist of AMPA/kainate glutamate receptors. Once calibrated using electrophysiological and two-deoxyglucose techniques in vivo, drug or vehicle was infused chronically or acutely into the dorsal hippocampus of rats at appropriate times during or after training in a water maze. Our findings indicate that hippocampal neural activity is necessary for both encoding and retrieval of spatial memory and for either trace consolidation or long-term storage.

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v4/n7/full/nn0701_724.html

Two different lateral amygdala cell populations contribute to the initiation and storage of memory

Single-cell activity was recorded in the dorsal subnucleus of the lateral amygdala (LAd) of freely behaving rats during Pavlovian fear conditioning, to determine the relationship between neuronal activity and behavioral learning. Neuronal responses elicited by the conditioned stimulus typically increased before behavioral fear was evident, supporting the hypothesis that neural changes in LAd account for the conditioning of behavior. Furthermore, two types of these rapidly modified cells were found. Some, located in the dorsal tip of LAd, exhibited short-latency responses (<20 ms) that were only transiently changed. A second class of cells, most commonly found in ventral regions of LAd, had longer latency responses, but maintained enhanced responding throughout training and even through extinction. These anatomically distinct cells in LAd may be differentially involved in the initiation of learning and long-term memory storage.

Neurobiology of aggressive behavior.,by Delgado JM.; Boll Soc Ital Biol Sper. 1976 Oct 30;52(18 Suppl):1-19.Causality, neurological mechanisms, and behavioral manifestations may be heterogeneous in different forms of aggressive behavior, but some elements are shared by all forms of violence, including the necessity of sensory inputs, the coding and decoding of information according to acquired frames of reference, and the activation of pre-established patterns of response. Understanding and prevention of violence requires a simultaneous study of its social, cultural, and economic aspects, at parity with an investigation of its neurological mechanisms. Part of the latter information may be obtained through animal experimentation, preferably in non-human primates. Feline predatory behavior has no equivalent in man, and therefore its hypothalamic representation probably does not exist in the human brain. Codes of information, frames of reference for sensory perception, axis to evaluate threats, and formulas for aggressive performance are not established genetically but must be learned individually. We are born with the capacity to learn aggressive behavior, but not with established patterns of violence. Mechanisms for fighting which are acquired by individual experience may be triggered in a similar way by sensory cues, volition, and by electrical stimulation of specific cerebral areas. In monkeys, aggressive responses may be modified by changing the hierarchical position of the stimulated animal, indicating the physiological quality of the neurological mechanisms electrically activated.PMID: 193531 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Wakefulness

Inter-response time distribution as a function of differential reinforcement of temporally spaced responses.KELLEHER RT, FRY W, COOK L., J Exp Anal Behav. 1959 Apr;2:91-106.How do rats develop such remarkable precision in spacing their responses along a temporal continuum? Our results, as well as those of Anger (1956), indicate that rats can time intervals of 20 seconds or longer with fair accuracy by some means other than a chain of overt responses. PMID: 13853360 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Mind Control Research

This is an Open Source Media Research Project to establish the Political Realness and Technical Feasibility (Proof of Principle) of the use of Brain Telemetry as an Intelligence tool. Also known as Mind Control or Psychotronics.